Feeding Update

Here's that update about River's feedings...and it's quite an update!

Yesterday afternoon I was approaching my wit's end! River had become even more frustrated and upset during feedings, and all of a sudden my easy going boy, wasn't so happy any more. He was pulling off the breast every time I'd let down (my milk would start coming), he was crying and couldn't get comfortable during and after feedings, he continued to have mucousy stools and he was coughing, gasping and cringing throughout the day. I called the lactation nurse at Gritman, and she suggested I go see the doctor again. At this point I figured it would be best to seek out a pediatrician, hoping that they would be more familiar with milk/soy protein intolerance (MSPI), and diagnosing it. If this was really happening to me again I wanted to be diligent about it.

There is only one pediatric group on the Palouse so I scheduled an appointment and headed to Pullman with Maggie and River in tow.

My first shock was how much weight River gained in less than a week...over a pound!!!! He had been exactly 8lbs on Friday, and yesterday he weighed 9lbs, 1oz. That's a lot of weight gain! Although this was a shock, it made sense considering that he had been pulling off the breast during the beginning of feedings, and finishing feedings after much of the foremilk had already been lost, meaning he was only really taking hindmilk (all that fatty milk). We met with Dr. Boyer (who I was really impressed with; thank goodness!). She checked over River, looked at one of his stools, and listened intently to what I shared with her about how he had been responding to feedings. She agreed that all the signs were pointing to MSPI again, and she suggested I go on a restricted diet (good thing I already started on Sunday!). She then prescribed Zantac, to help if it's just reflux, and since if he does have MSPI he'd have reflux anyways. She then suggested I see a lactation nurse at Gritman to discuss ways to keep him at the breast during let down. We also scheduled another weight check in one week to monitor that fast weight gain.

When we got home I called the lactation nurse back and shared with her what I had discussed with Dr. Boyer. She asked me to come in that evening (only in Moscow can you just run into the hospital and get some lactation help at 6:30pm). We discussed pumping before feedings to reduce the impact of my let down, then attaching a tube and a syringe with the expressed milk to my breast for River to take while he breastfeeds.

(I'm in a complete daze at about this time, and wondering how I'm realistically going to work this all out).

With my new "baby gear," River and I took a nice, slow walk to the drugstore to pick up his Zantac, and then headed home.

Well, the whole "pumping, syringing, tubing experience" wasn't so easy or enjoyable for River or I, or Zac who held the syringe as River attempted to breastfeed. Needless to say, I ripped the tube off my chest and stated "We won't be doing this!" River already seems to be responding better with a few doses of Zantac which is great though!

So now...I've got about a week and a half on the diet to get the milk/soy proteins out of my system, and then another couple weeks for River to work them out of his. Then hopefully we'll have a more obvious answer to why River isn't so happy after eating.

And of course, I can't do a blog post (even a whaa, whaa, whaa one) without some pictures of the cute little boy...here's our little River Roo today...